Thursday, October 22, 2009

What if 2 Adult-White Males Were Trafficked Every Minute?

Well, there would be a “war on trafficking” of course. It would be front-page news every day. The talking heads would not shut up about it. There would be “freedom concerts” and “tea parties” demanding action. There would be white-collar riots in the streets. The government would be forced to make the issue its number one priority.

Criminal gangs making billions of dollars from the enslavement and exploitation of adult-white males would be hunted down and confronted without excuse or delay. Corporations linked in anyway to the modern-day slave trade would be shut down, their assets confiscated and their owners prosecuted. The military would actually enforce its “zero tolerance” policy and stop minimizing the misdeeds of some of its servicemen and military contractors. Conservative talk show hosts would be as hard on the Department of Defense as they are on ACORN.

Law enforcement officers would no longer label trafficking victims as criminals but rather as exploited adult-white males. Lawmakers would increase penalties for perpetrators and judges would sentence criminals to the full extent of the law. Companies without ‘fair trade” or “slave free” certification would not survive government mandates or the scrutiny of the public. Those in the music or film industry who would dare to glamorize exploited adult-white males would be shunned rather than celebrated. Pimp culture would become as fashionable as Nazi culture. Teens would never be heard saying, “Dude, check out my Nazi’d-out clothes.”

As Bono says, “every generation has a chance to change the world.” The problem is, every generation has a hard time seeing, or admitting, what it needs to change. As an adult-white male myself, I’m suggesting that we don’t really believe that “all are created equal.” How else can we explain this?

2 human beings are trafficked every minute.

-80% are women and children trafficked into sexual slavery and exploitation

-20% are women, children and non-white adult males trafficked into forced labor

-0% are adult-white males

Average estimates from UN, US State Dept.

Now I am NOT saying all, or even the majority, of exploitation is a result of adult-white males. But I am saying we have a responsibility to respond to the modern-day slave trade as if we were the ones being trafficked.

3 comments:

Todd Berger
said...

Wonderful thoughts, Lamont. Thanks for sharing your heart here. I'm reading a book called "Unspeakable" by Os Guinness who argues that the apathy of good people who do nothing collectively is more damaging than the atrocities caused by individuals like Hitler... Thanks for the wake-up call.

That is so true. Most crimes are never noticed until a white person gets involved. Change needs to happen and it needs to happen now. I saw a comic in a newspaper that had two starving children and the first bubble said "How can we get noticed?" and the other one said "We could use a balloon" There are children in the world suffering and who are we focused on? Balloon boy. That is not right. We should be out helping. Getting kids out of poverty, starvation, and sexual slavery and exploitation.Thank you.

I appreciate your thoughts and I agree that we need to act. Thank you for what you are doing. I recently found Love146 and will be supporting its efforts. Loving the oppressed is part of loving Jesus, count me in.